Signatures are accumulating as quickly as anomalies are depleting. And we're not clearing any of those anomalies, so the profit is going to other corporations. This isn't an ideal situation. Two new signatures accompany the static wormhole, and these two are wormholes too, both K162s from class 4 w-space. Damned visitors, stealing our Sleeper loot. I've a good mind to see if I can claim some back. As I warp to the K162s in the order I scan them, to C4a K162 first and then to the one from C4b, I may as well start where I land. I jump to C4b.

My directional scanner shows me nothing from the X877-side of the wormhole, but with only one planet in range, with a customs office and no moons, there is probably more to see. The system has probably changed from two years ago, though, which is back when we lived in a C4/C4 system and regularly visited other class 4 w-space systems, and the changes include there now being occupation. Occupation, but no activity. A tower sits empty of ships and pilots, and a blanket scan reveals a messy system indeed. Eight anomalies isn't too bad, but thirty-six signatures will take some time sifting through.

I have two more known wormholes already bookmarked, so I locate the tower in C4b for reference—it could probably use more defences—and return home to see what's happening in C4a, through the other K162. A tower with no ships on d-scan looks dull, but a blanket scan shows a tidier system, with just three anomalies and five signatures. It takes no time to resolve two gravimetric sites and two wormholes, giving me another K162 from class 4 w-space and a K162 from deadly class 6 w-space. Penny the cryptocarebear will stick with C4 systems for now.

D-scan is clear in C4c, and my notes give me nothing. Exploring finds a tower with an empty Nidhoggur carrier and piloted Manticore stealth bomber, interestingly orange, but nothing else is in the system and the Manticore isn't making any moves. The four anomalies and five signatures just give me rocks, gas, and a Sleeper site, with no more connections heading backwards. I should probably look at that C6. And it doesn't look particularly deadly on entrance, as again, from the wormhole, d-scan is clear. But warping around finds plenty of ships. Big ships too.

Three towers, six dreadnoughts, two carriers, plus a freighter, a Rorqual capital industrial ship, three Orca industrial command ships, a Buzzard covert operations boat, and Arazu recon ship all light up d-scan, but the Arazu disappears before I can find the towers. That can't be a good sign. A Legion strategic cruiser takes its place soon enough, and that I am able to see at one of the towers, piloted by a relative of the Buzzard, it seems. The capital ships I don't care about. The Legion looks to be awake, as the ship warps away, but only to another tower, where I watch him do nothing. At least, until he goes off-line. I assume that was the Arazu's fate too. Never mind, there is still more to explore.

I head homewards and onwards, through our static connection to C3a, where a can is on d-scan and nothing else. A tower holds a piloted Anathema cov-ops elsewhere in the system, and the two anomalies and four signatures gives me a wormhole on my first choice of signature to resolve. As I do that, the Anathema warps out of the tower, perhaps in the direction of the wormhole, so I ignore scanning for now and follow behind. But I see no sign of the cov-ops boat, and as the wormhole is in pristine condition I have probably just this minute opened it. I don't think I was too slow behind the Anathema, more that it didn't actually come here.

The Anathema's gone, somewhere, so I get back to scanning. Gas, gas, rocks, a magnetometric site. I have one way to go, so jump through the U210 to low-sec empire space, appearing in the Sinq Laison region. A bunch of pilots are in the system, none marked as coming from the current w-space constellation, so I launch probes to see if more wormholes connect here. No, no they don't. It's all a bit quiet. I return home again, having enough time to spare to wade through the three-dozen signatures in C4b, but I find no obvious K162s and don't care to hunt for hidden ones.

So much space, so little happening. I don't give up quite yet, though. Maybe the constellation has woken up in the time it's taken me to scout it all. I poke my prow back in to C4a, which remains quiet, then in to C6a, where even the Buzzard has disappeared, and then to C4c, to see the Manticore still motionless in the tower. There really isn't anything happening. I suppose it really is time to call it a night.